Half Blind Dovetails

For a box or drawer that will have fat pins, I cut tails first. Cutting the tails first allows you to saw the two tail boards at one time. Plus, transferring layout lines from tails to pins is easier than vice versa.

For a delicate project with skinny, English-style dovetails, I cut pins first. With thin pins, it's very difficult (and in some cases, impossible) to transfer layout lines from tails to pins, so cutting pins first makes sense.

That being said, I'm cutting tails first for the drawer on the sawbuck table, with through dovetails at the back and half blind at the front.

The drawer will have angled sides, so the width at the top is 15" and the width at the bottom is 13". I believe I've mentioned my geometry-challenged brain before.*

The training wheels are in the form of a guide block that's used to keep the chisel perpendicular to the workpiece. This ensures that the area that's removed between tails & pins will be flat. Some people like to undercut this area so pins and tails seat exactly to the guide lines, but a guide block removes this potential problem.

Once I've cut the tails, I use a bevel-edged pencil to transfer the outlines to the adjoining board, but you can also use a marking knife. Take care to make precise marks when you transfer these lines. When you saw the waste, cut right to the line (the line will just barely be sawn away when you've finished cutting). The more accurate the layout and cut, the less paring (if any) you'll have to do to fit the boards together.

*A friend accused me of never posting anything that I've screwed up. So here it is. Because I'm missing a math gene, my boards are not aligned along the top and bottom edges.

To transfer the tails' outlines to the front board, I aligned the top and bottom edges as I would with a square project. But bevelled sides require that the boards be offset when you transfer your marks.

I still don't know the equation to figure out the measurement for the offset, but fortunately the depth doesn't matter in this project, so I can plane the top and bottom edges to match.

There's also a gap in the top pin. But it's nothing that a little well-crammed wax can't fix once the project is finished.

I have been following your blog for sometime now, and I have to say I admire your work and all.

This one here, The "Half Blind Dovetails" Instructions was GREAT.

I've seen many Videos, Instructions, etc, and I think your Set of instructions "Including Mishaps" Was Great, This show the woodworker in you, it shows you arn't affraid to make a Mistake and let people know, Both Learn from it, and learn how to omit the mistake as they get better.

Thanks for the Instructions, I will definatly be trying this out, as I've not had the pleasure of giving Dovetails a chance just yet.

hi Kari, I had a question about the choice to cope saw the waste - I have seen some woodworkers chisel all the waste out by chiseling horizontally - looks like you are using cherry? a hard wood to chisel cross grain - I have tried your method and just get crushed fibers - maybe my chisel is not sharp enough - I like how clean the final result looks. Do you use a hammer to chisel or just hand pressure on the chisel- Tom

Tom, if you are getting crushed fibers, then I'm guessing you are trying to chisel off too much at one time and/or your chisel is not sharp enough.

I use a pretty beefy Japanese chisel (with a mallet) and have even used a mortising chisel to chip away the waste. You can try chopping the majority away with a mortising chisel and then switch to a very sharp paring chisel for the final few passes.

I chop away about 1/16" at a time (once I've removed most of the waste with the jeweler's saw). The closer I get to the final pass, the thinner the shavings I'll take.

If you prefer to use a chisel to remove all the waste, then you can take bigger pieces at the beginning and lighten up as you get closer to the gauge line.

Hi Kari: I write and coordinate articles for a private publication for carpenters. I think the guys would really enjoy some of your blogs if you would allow me to reprint them. Could you please email me at Obsession60@hotmail.com. Thanks so much!

Finally! I asked you for a dovetail tutorial ages ago. Geesh, Kari:-D You do the best tutorials, so the wait was worth it. Btw, which Photoshop do you use? Is it the professional version or one of the Element versions? I want to figure out how to do a photo layout like you're doing.Oh yeah, I was watching one of my videos yesterday (or the day before) and I believe it was Frank Klaus who was adjusting a Krenov style plane with his little metal hammer.

Really nice half-blind dovetail tutorial! And I must compliment you on your choice of dovetail gauge. :) The result was lovely, as well. I'm starting a project where I have to decide whether to do half-blind dovetails or use a separate drawer face. I'm leaning towards the latter. :)

mdhills, I use photoshop for work (never heard of Comic Life and will check it out).

Heavens no I didn't use any calculations for this project--my brain would be fried! haha I did align all the pieces to transfer my marks, but because the sides of the drawer are angled, it didn't come out right. I'm waiting for some geometry whiz to let me know what I did wrong. ; )

Now that I caught that, I wasn't clear from the step-by-step if it described cutting the joint for the angled sides. I believe that you need to either cut the sides of your tails at an angle, or adjust the angle on the pins. Very similar to angled mortise&tenon. I'd probably try this at step#4 -- where your strike across the ends of the sides is done parallel to the edges, rather than perpendicular to the faces. Not sure if you can still gang them up -- my mind boggles at that.

A guide block to keep the chisel at 90 degrees! That is so simply brilliant! It's so very North Bennett Street School of you that it makes me think that more than likely it is what cabinet shops of the 18th century probably did as well. Love the tutorial and the layout as always.

Shannon, it's actually College of the Redwoods (although they may also teach this at NBSS). I learned this technique from David Finck, who learned it from Krenov. But I'm sure it's been around a lot longer than either of those two men.

Kari, I believe if you were to butt the tails board up to the face board with the outside face of the tails flush with the edge of the face board you could then mark the top of the first tail. Then you would strike a line and use this to line up the tail to when you placed it over the face board to mark the pins.

Hope you can make heads and tails LOL out of this convoluted explanation.

Ace, I THINK I understand, but would that set the tails board higher than the pins board when you mark your pins? If so, then you would want to do the opposite of what you suggest--mark the bottom tail instead--because with the way I did it, when put together, the tails board sits higher than the pins board.

If I understand you, your suggestion would put the tails board even higher. But if you did the opposite, I think it might work. Thanks!

The traditional method of creating half blind dovetails doesn't differ much from the method of creating through dovetails, but there are some points to keep in mind:

The section of the pin board that is not to be cut (thus forming the blind portion of the joint), is called the lap. The lap on the board should never be less than 1/8" thick, yet should never exceed 1/3 of the pin board's thickness, to ensure the